CID Lens On Ex IPS Officer Bharati Ghosh, Raid Starts

Kolkata: Ex IPS officer Bharati Ghosh, who was serving as SP West Midnapore, resigned from the service, within 48 hours of her transfer to a less significant post allegedly after she fell out of favour with the ruling Trinamool Congress.

In the first-ever crackdown against Ex IPS officer in West Bengal Bharati Ghosh, CID raids starts on her premises of different houses across two more places in the state and unearthed assets of nearly cash and gold jwellery. From Thursday night to till now, the raid is going on.

Ghosh, 55, was one of the most controversial police officers of West Bengal, who often drew flak from political opponents of the TMC for being too close to the ruling dispensation. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee used to refer to her mostly by her pet name.

The IPS officer triggered intense controversy when she termed Banerjee as the mother of Jangalmahal at a public meeting in Midnapore town in 2015. The Maoist-affected forest-covered areas of three districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia are called Jangalmahal.

She was shunted to the post of a battalion commander of state armed police on December 25 after which she sent her resignation to director general of police Surajit Kar Purakayastha, police sources said. She had taken over as West Midnapore superintendent of police in 2012.

The sudden transfer and subsequent resignation of the once blue-eyed cop of the chief minister has triggered political speculation. A section of Trinamool leaders claimed that her transfer to an insignificant post could be linked to the recent Sabang assembly bypolls, where the vote share of the BJP candidate rose by about 15% to reach 18%. In 2016 it was a meagre 2.6%.